While doing so will require more than a presidential signature on a piece of paper, and we have yet to see what sort of working relationship the president will have with Congress, I take him at his word. So far, he seems quite determined to do exactly what he said he was going to do during the election campaign.

Other commentators have pointed to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or the Volcker Rule, which restricts banks from making some of the speculative investments that led to the 2008-9 global economic crisis, as likely first targets.

But the consumer bureau has strong defenders, including a United States senator, and dismantling Volcker would have really bad optics. The banks have already figured out several ways around the Volcker Rule — consider trading in distressed syndicated loans — and they may decide it is not worth the negative publicity that repeal would entail.

But who is going to stand up for an obscure piece of insolvency law that is easily painted as a bailout tool? Moreover, because the Orderly Liquidation Authority includes a line of credit for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation when it conducts liquidations under the law, any changes to this provision of Dodd-Frank, known as Title II, can happen through the budget reconciliation process, which is entirely immune from filibusters. And once Title II is gone, other pieces of Dodd-Frank may follow.

If the bank fails in any way other than as predicted — and who exactly predicted the failure of Lehman Brothers or the near-collapse of the American International Group? — these proposals will be useless. That, of course, will lead to a plea from Wall Street for bailouts.

If that happens during a Trump administration, it will be interesting to see what happens next. On the one hand, I doubt the president’s core supporters would be too keen on seeing their tax dollars flow again to Wall Street.

On the other hand, as Lehman showed, financial panics cause mass financial destruction, even when we engage in some degree of bailouts. It is beyond doubt that without government assistance to both the banks and the automakers, 2008-09 would have been far worse for the average Trump voter.

Stephen J. Lubben holds the Harvey Washington Wiley Chair in corporate governance and business ethics at Seton Hall Law School and is an expert on bankruptcy.